Billie Holiday — "I'm not a symbol. I'm a woman."

"I never had a mother that was really a mother. I just had a kid that was a mother. She was eighteen, I was thirteen, and she used to go out and live it up. So I had to go out and get a job. I was work…"

"When you're poor and black, you're born into a world that turns your heart into a tin can and anyone who is in the mood swings out and kicks you. You're only a hunk, a black creature in a white world …"

"I don't like to talk about myself. I just like to sing."

"You can't be a great singer if you don't know life."

"I just want to be left alone. I don't want to be bothered."